Foreigners should be ready to stand up to police if they are hassled over the
new migration cards, the deputy head of the Federal Migration Service said
Tuesday.

Mikhail Tyurkin was addressing a seminar on the law on foreigners, which made
migration cards a requirement, in an attempt to clear up the confusion that has
clouded their introduction.

Tyurkin said that foreigners, when asked to present documents to police on
the street, should comply politely and "look the officer in the eye.

"You should tell them that they don't know the law if you entered Russia
on a visa before Feb. 14, you are registered and don't have a migration card and
they tell you that something is wrong with your papers," he said. "You
can ask the police officer for his first and last name and date of birth and
tell him that you will see that he is properly informed. If he refuses, then he
is not a real police officer but only posing as one."

Told the police have been checking papers to extract bribes, he said
foreigners should not pay off the police and said he wanted to be told about
such cases. "Just let me know who they are, and I will see that they are
fired," he said.

Migration cards were introduced at all Russian and Belarussian border points
Friday. Foreigners without visas -- mainly those from the CIS -- are required to
carry cards.

Those with visas are required only to fill in the cards, have them stamped at
the airport, and then surrender them on departure, Tyurkin said. "The main
concern is citizens without visas," he said.

Officials have contradicted one another on the registration of foreigners
with multiple-entry visas. Tyurkin said they will have to register only once for
the duration of their visas, while Nikolai Kurakov, the deputy head of Moscow's
passport and visa department, said last week that they will have to reregister
each time they enter Russia. Under the law, foreigners have to register each
time they enter Russia. Various officials have said, however, that this will not
be enforced and the law will be amended.

Criticizing advertisements offering migration cards for 1,500 rubles ($63),
Tyurkin said no one should pay a third party for a migration card because they
are free of charge.

Asked what foreigners who do not speak Russian should do if they are stopped,
Tyurkin said all Moscow police speak English. This was greeted with laughter
from the audience of about 150.

Maryann Gashi-Butler, managing partner at Phoenix Law Associates, said
foreigners should have someone whom they can contact should the police say their
papers are not in order. "In addition to an element of pure opportunism at
the police level, there appears to be genuine confusion among state agencies
whether registration of foreigners is to occur centrally or locally," she
said.

People receiving migration cards on inbound aircraft are told to register the
cards at their local passport and visa office, but those offices have refused to
register them in the past week, she said.

Alexander Yermolenko, legal adviser at audit and consulting firm FBK, told
the seminar that the law on foreigners is ambiguous and filled with hurdles for
employers.

"It is difficult to imagine what kind of value a foreigner needs to
offer an employer for the employer to be prepared to comply with the entire
authorization process on the employee's behalf and deal with all the questions
arising from the new legislation," he said.